Mexico on the high end
13 January 2011 | Las Hadas - near Manzanillo Mexico
Larry Nelson
We've arrived where the georgeous houses are squeezed together onto the prettiest real estate on the shores of Mexico (at least the parts of Mexico we've seen so far). The Las Hadas Resort is the cover picture for the cruisers guide "Pacific Mexico" by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer. The water is clear and 77F and the days are mid 80-'sF. We got here in time to "do lunch" at the cafe in the condo's that overlooks the bay. It was as nice as eating can get and the total cost with tip was $11 USD for two. Pretty nice. Only one problem, the generator wouldn't start and it is time to make water again. We charged the batteries on the way over with the main engine, but the gen set problem meant that Larry had to work today. And it was tough. This particular problem took about 5 hours to understand, but only a few seconds to fix. This is so typical of the problems we have had on our boat. The problem started out as a fuel problem. There is an electric fuel pump that provides fuel pressure to the gen set. That pump wouldn't run. It wasn't the pump, the 12 volt signal to pump wasn't there. But...where did that signal fail to be provided? It turns out that the answer isn't simple. Actually it is beyond complicated edging on very complicated. I started out tracing wires, but there is a system of sensors on the gen set that is designed to interrupt operation for a host of reasons. To interrupt gen set service, the system turns off power to the fuel pump. And here is the real gotcha, the system LATCHES into an interrupt condition that continues even after the fault that caused the interruption is resolved. To resume operation an override switch (the switch is labeled in German and has no understandable explanation anyway) on the front of the gen set has to be operated. Now it turns out that our gen set is very well sound insulated, which means that it is also very well thermally insulated. This is a problem when the generator does a normal shut down on a hot day since the temperature is managed by water cooling, which is interrupted when the generator motor is shut off. Under certain warm water and air conditions, the temperature shut down system is triggered AFTER the generator has been turned off. Since the gen set is turned off, there is no annunciation of the thermal shut down. When you try to start it, it won't start because the fuel pump is not enabled. So, the boat lesson is to push the override switch before starting the gen set. You'll know you are successful if you can hear the fuel pump start up and cycle until it reaches pressure (a few seconds...you have to pay attention and know what you are listening for). This overide switch is a great example of the basic engineering handoff to marketing, "If you can't fix it, feature it." When they added the sound insulation they didn't go back in and rethink the protection systems. Of course I didn't get to learn this lesson until I reached the warm water and warm day with extended gen set usage. This is the nature of cruising boat lessons. You can't solve them before you start out. And once you have started on your journey it is unlikely anyone but you will be available to figure it out. Thus the mantra, "Don't leave home without your engineer aboard" was born.